May 2025 Newsletter

Dear Brethren,

April was a fantastic month. We were blessed with three more baptisms this month. When you see the pictures, you will think that these are just children… but the girls are both 19 years old and the boy is 20.  The young man’s name is Phanuwat. The girls are Ampai and Aawha. We have known these young people and have been teaching them for a long time. Ampai, we have known nearly three years. She has been to camp twice and comes to worship every week. The other two have only been to camp once, but have been regularly attending worship services as well. We have also had personal Bible studies with each of these young people. We are thankful that they have decided to give their lives to the Lord. We will continue to work with them, teach them, and help them to grow in the Lord.

Aawha’s baptism.

Phanuwat’s baptism.

Camp this year was different from the last few years. Instead of bringing all of the young people to one place, we went to five villages and had five one-day camps. The villages we went to were Maelati, Maelayaw, Borikho, Maewuy, and Maewuytha. Last year at camp, we had just over 200 young people.  This year, if we add all the places together, there were around 175 young people. We were able to meet some of the older and younger people in the villages. They were able to meet us and see what we were doing. We had camp this way so that we could meet and build relationships with the families and neighbors of the young people that we help. This was the first step to a better relationship with the people in these villages. We will follow up and do even more work in each of these villages. At each village, we had four Bible lessons, activities, games, a meal, and we passed out school supplies and snacks. It was an exhausting week, but also a great week. We spent over 12 hours bouncing over terrible roads and driving through swift-flowing rivers. Not over, but through those rivers. In one case, we had to have people walk across first, looking for big rocks and drop-offs, before we drove the trucks through the rivers. Next year, we will go back to our regular format. But this year’s camp accomplished the purpose for which we designed it.

The villages we went to were Maelati, Maelayaw, Borikho, Maewuy, and Maewuytha.

When the camp was over, the work for the month was not. April is the time we must prepare for the beginning of the school year, which begins on the 14^th of May. During this time, we have to buy school supplies and uniforms, pay for school terms for those entering university or training programs, and transport students to their schools/universities. We also have to visit students, interview students, and give out scholarship money. Next month, we will visit each student who has received a scholarship for the upcoming year. For those going into university, we also have to make sure that the students have all the paperwork they need. Some of our students do not have Thai citizen cards… they have to have permission to leave their province if they are going to school in a different province. With two of our students, we had to sign them out of Chiang Mai province and take them back to Tak province.  We then started paperwork because this year they will be going to university in Mae Hong Son province. They have to have permission to leave Tak and go to Mae Hong Son. At the end of May, we will take them from Tak to Mae Hong Son and sign them into that province so that they can attend university there. We also have four young ladies going through the Expert Care program to become Nurse Assistants. That program lasts one year… but the cost is the same as two years of university. At the end of the program, the school helps each one to get a job. We have had four young ladies complete this program, and they all have great jobs.

Most of our young men have been in the mountains during the school break. Some of the young ladies who stay with us were also in the mountains. We only had 6 young ladies with us during the school break. They were mainly those who are going into university this year. I took advantage of this time to have extra Bible classes with those young ladies during this time. It was a wonderful time of extra Bible study together.  The young ladies appreciated having these lessons designed specifically for them and to help them with things that they will be facing shortly.

Bible class.

As you will remember from my last report, some of our water systems were damaged in the earthquake that we had. It was also time to change the filters on all of the systems. Each year, the filtering agents must be changed to continue to provide clean water for these villages. So, during this month, we also repaired the damages to the shelters of the water systems and replaced the filters. This was a time-consuming and costly project, but it was something that had to be done to continue helping these people have clean water to drink and to cook with.

Each year, the filtering agents must be changed to continue to provide clean water for these villages.

I am excited about my upcoming trip to America to give reports. I look forward to seeing and visiting as many of you as possible. Most of all, I am excited to be able to tell you about the work that we are doing together for the Lord.

God bless,
Michael